Monday, February 25, 2013

It is so hard to believe that February is only is almost over and March 1st will be here in just a few short days. Where is the time going? It makes me sad thinking how fast time is flying, but I must say I am ready for Winter and the cold weather to move!!! C'mon Springtime!!!

I am still loving everything about project life!! I love that I am able to capture our daily life through photos and journaling and that I can document it all so easily through Project Life. Each week I can choose to keep it rather simple with just photos and journaling if I'm super busy or I can do all this plus add all the fun embellishments. Project Life is so versatile and works perfectly in my life!!! Can you tell I'm obsessed???!!!

Anyways... I am slightly behind in posting some of my completed layouts. So with that, here is the completed layout for week 6.

I am still mostly using the seafoam kit, but I have some great add ons and fun embellishments from my local scrapbook store that go great with this kit!! One thing that I have kept consistent from week to week is using my date stamp showing the days of the week for that layout.

Left side: I love that I saved the scrap paper Patrick used to keep score of our Rummy game! It went great with this weeks layout and pic of our card game!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

It is official.... my crock-pot has become my best friend!! What did I ever do without it? I know crock-pot meals are nothing new, but I really just started using mine. And all I can say is.... Boy have I been missing out!

On the menu for dinner last night was Chicken Ranch Tacos.

They turned out so yummy and once again the hubby was wow'ed by my cooking. I found the recipe from Pinterest (of course) and you can check it out here. I deviated from this recipe some, because I worked a 12 hour shift yesterday and I needed a faster version. So instead of cooking my chicken in a skillet on the stove I used the crock-pot.

Ingredients for Chicken Ranch Tacos:

3-4 chicken breasts (thawed, not frozen)

1 packet taco seasoning

1 pack ranch seasoning

1 jar of salsa (I used black bean and corn salsa and it was yummy)

1/2 cup chicken broth

Taco shells

Optional toppings:

-Shredded cheese

-Pico

-Taco sauce, sour cream, ranch dressing

In your crock pot mix the chicken broth with taco seasoning and ranch seasoning. Mix real good until all ingredients have mixed well. Then put in the chicken breasts and top the chicken breasts with the jar of salsa. Cook this in the crock-pot on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. Once it is cooked, take a fork a shredded the chicken. The chicken will be so moist it will shred mostly on its own. And now you are ready to eat.

Serve the chicken in taco shells with all the fixings you love. I have never actually put ranch on my tacos so I tried a little squirt and it was to die for!! I probably should have never tried it, because now I will be wanting ranch every time I eat chicken tacos!!!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

My hubby loves cake balls so of course I had to make some for him for Valentine's Day!! I am working till 8pm today so we are not celebrating today, but I wanted to make sure I had some treats for him today so I made all the goodies on Tuesday when I was off.

If you have never made cake balls... you HAVE to try it!! They are so easy and so yummy! I am not a fan of cake, but these are amazing and I can assure you they are the BOMB!!!

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix (any flavor of your choice) + ingredients required to make the cake. I get strawberry
because it's Patricks favorite!
1 can of icing (once again any will do, but I prefer cream cheese)
1 package of bark chocolate (vanilla or chocolate)

Directions: Combine cake mix with ingredients to make cake. Bake cake according to package. Once the cake is done, let it cool for a few mintues. Then using a fork, crumble the cake up in a large bowl and mix with the entire container of icing.

Now you are ready to form the actual cake ball. I use a little scoop that I got at Kroger to help form the cake balls. I have done it without the scoop and it is very difficult and messy. This is the second time I have made the cakes balls using the scoop and I highly recommend using the scoop.... much easier!!!

Next, form the cake balls and then place each ball on wax paper on a cookie sheet. After you have finished making the balls, put the cookie sheet in the freezer for 3-4 hours. This helps the cake balls cool and they harden just a bit. This makes it very easy when you go to dip them in the chocolate. Once you get the cake balls out of the freezer you are ready to dip in the melted chocolate. After dipping them, place the cake ball back on the wax paper and let chocolate cool and harden.

And it is as simple as that! Sometimes, I add sprinkles for fun or if it's for a holiday!!!

For Valentines this year I made the strawberry cakes balls with vanilla icing and I made brownie cake pops too. Instead of cake I used brownies.... oh they were sooo yummy!!!

Next time you need a quick, fun, dessert try these... and you will be VERY glad you did!!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

My goal to cook more in 2013 is going well. I can honestly say that I am cooking 4 nights a week and some weeks 5 nights. I have been able to accomplish this with lots of meal planning on Sunday nights, Pinterest recipes, and my friend, the crock pot!!!!

We are eating healthier, saving money, and my hubby is loving all the new recipes and even the traditional ones!

Tonight I made chicken, spinach, bell peeper, and cheese quesadillas. The hubby said, they were the best quesadillas he has ever had! SCORE!!!!!

This is a simple, fast meal for when you don't have a lot of time or for any occasion.

I sprayed the skillet with non-stick spray, then placed a shell in the skillet and then topped with chicken, peppers, spinach, and cheese. Then place another shell on top. Let the shell brown and crispen and then flip. And there you have it... Dinner in 15 mins!!!

I added a little salsa to my plate to dip my quesadilla. I am not a huge fan of sour cram, but the hubby is so he used salsa and sour cream!!!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

I am a little behind this week on getting last weeks Project Life layout done and I didn't finish in time to link up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.... But that's ok because the layout is now complete. We had a lot of things going on in week 5. I ended up having my weekly layout and then added 2 extra inserts this week.

I incorporated lots of fun embellishments and fun paper products this week. I am sticking with the Seafoam kit mostly, but these week I used a lot of other products too.

Here is the left side of the layout...

I am trying to coordinate the color schemes more instead of always using so many colors in one layout. I love how the red and black turned out.... looks great together! The Amy Tangerine typewriter sticker went great with this page along with the polka dot washi tape from Target. I purchased my first Amy Tangerine products a few weeks ago... all I can say is... "I am in LOVE with her stuff." And I love the journaling on the black and white 3x4 card from the seafoam kit. Forgot what page I stole this idea from, but it was from a link up over at The Mom Creative.

First insert is the page protector Design I by Becky Higgins. The protector works great for those instagram pics. This week, I downloaded the app "Printicular" and uploaded my instagram pics there and then printed them at my local Walgreens. I love how they turned out!!! It was my first time printing to the actual 4x4 instagram size. I will definatley be doing this more now that I have the app.

Front:

Back:

The second insert is the page protector Design F. I cut off the bottom part of the protector and used the remaining to document Allie's 12th Birthday celebration. I love using Design F, because you can include so many pictures on one page.

Front:

Back:

And here is the right side of the layout...

For this page I used paper products from Echo Park Paper Co. I found this at our local scrapbook store and fell in love with the colors! And I found this great Superbowl 3x4 printable..once again I can not have credit for it... I found it from one of the blogs I follow. I am going to try and be better and remeber where I find all these great products so I can give credit to who deserves it!!!

Thanks for stopping by!! I am busy working on Week 6 layout, so I can link up with all my Project Life friends!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

These pics say it ALL!!! Never in a million years did I think I could love a dog as much as I do. My LOVE for my furbaby Lily is more than words!! And I know she loves me the same! If this is any indication on how I will be with my kids... LOOK OUT!!!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Friday night we celebrated Patrick's birthday with his mom, brother, sister-in-law, and nephews. Patrick was in the mood for some italian cuisine, so we went to The Old Spaghetti Factory in the heart of Downtown Louisville. This restaurant is so fun!!! It's in an old building with chandeliers, neat siting areas, and they even have part of a train inside the restaurant that you can eat in. Super cool if you ask me!

This is my super cute nephew, Pierce in the train....

Then on Saturday night we celebrated my littlest sister Allie's 12th birthday! Hard to believe she will be a teenager next year. I was in the 8th grade when Allie was born and we have been inseparable ever since. Allie doesn't stand a chance as she gets older, because me and my other sister, Kathleen (23) can be a little over protecting!!

Here are some pics from Allie's lake/farm party at our family farm....

The birthday girl

Patrick and I

Allie and I

Transporation for the day

All the girls with my mom and dad

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Mom and I

Makeovers!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!!!

I love Sundays, but dread the start to another work week.. Especially when it's my long week and this week I have 2 extra meetings. Blah!!!